1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a means for sorting and more specifically to a means for sorting tires and the like. In particular, the instant invention relates to a means for sorting tires utilizing a pivotally mounted arm adapted to engage the inner bead portion of a tire in order to place the tire in a stack. A plurality of arms may be used in order to sort tires. The stacks of tires are stored in a manner allowing selective access to the tires. The arm device may also be used to remove the tires from the stack.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Material handling means used in the manufacture of tires are known in the art and include devices such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,391,769 to Ichikawa, et al. which discloses an apparatus for loading unvulcanized tires in a tire vulcanizing machine which has a vertically movable loader arm with a contractably expansive paddle at the fore end thereof, an oscillating cylinder cooperative with a movable arm for oscillating the loader arm in a horizontal plane, and stand-by station for temporarily holding unvulcanized tires to be loaded on the vulcanizing machine, the loader arm being adapted to load the unvulcanized tires one after another in a mold on the machine by lifting, oscillating and paddle expanding operations. U.S. Pat. No. Re. 31,294 to Marosan discloses a material handling apparatus utilized in tire recapping operations wherein tires of various sizes are t be adjusted in order to accommodate a wide variety of sizes of tires. In addition, the devices of the prior art are relatively complex involving a substantial expenditure for the fabrication of the devices and further requiring substantial maintenance of the devices and increased downtime associated with these complex mechanical devices.
There is, therefore, a need for a relatively simple means for transporting tires which can accommodate a wide variety of tire sizes and does not necessitate thet be adjusted in order to accommodate a wide variety of sizes of tires. In addition, the devices of the prior art are relatively complex involving a substantial expenditure for the fabrication of the devices and further requiring substantial maintenance of the devices and increased downtime associated with these complex mechanical devices.
There is, therefore, a need for a relatively simple means for transporting tires which can accommodate a wide variety of tire sizes and does not necessitate the accurate registering of the tires with respect to the transport means.
The instant invention solves this problem by providing a pivoting arm means adapted to engage the inner portion of the bead of a tire in order to effect movement of the tire whereby the arm is readily adaptable to transport a wide variety of sizes of tires and further does not require that the tires be accurately registered with respect to the pivotally mounted arm. A plurality of arm means may be used in conjunction with selective access storage means to perform a sorting function of various types and sizes of tires.